Description

A Magic: the Gathering blog by and for the janky combo casual players alienated in a world of netdecking millionaires.

I value inexpensive (kinda) decks outside of the meta because I am cheap and easily bored.

If you are suitably entertained, stoke my insatiable need for attention and compliments via the +1 button

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Magic: the Mathering - The Genesis Deck

I was all set to write you up a report on the Modern Pauper tournament I was in yesterday but having played the games I am distinctly uninspired.

Part of it is that I went 2-2 as usual and didn't accomplish much of note, part of it is the fact I was running infect which doesn't lead to epic battles of strategy; it either wins in 2-6 turns or it loses and perhaps the most important part is that the fact that modern pauper, as opposed to legacy pauper, isn't really that much fun.

Standard pauper is fine because the meta is quite varied. Legacy pauper is great, because back in the day Magic designers didn't think it through properly. But modern pauper just feels like shit tier legacy pauper however I slice it. The deck loses Rancor and Lotus Petal, I had to play extra land and Predator's strike as my only source of trample. A massive power drop and the source of one of my match losses. I have a good modern infect deck and an improved version of the Phil Collins Deck for legacy pauper (the Phil Collins now has Groundswell and a full set of Vines of Vastwood.) So I looked around and cobbled together this version for modern.

4x Fog
2x Viridian Longbow2x Corpse Cur4x Hornet Sting3x Hunger of the HowlpackAlright, lets at least try for some analysis (thinking...) Alright, that is going to be crap, there's no depth, you can't analyze "didn't draw enough creatures" for very long. I'll instead try to focus on the decks of my opponents instead to see if you get some ideas. Match 1 2-1 Win vs White/Black ExaltedSome good stuff in here. Tormented Soul and exalted creatures forms the basis of the deck. Pillory of the Sleepless adds more defense. Not much to dislike. I lost game 1, by not drawing enough creatures and then I won games two and three by drawing enough creatures... Ugh. I never hated playing as infect until I started reporting on their games. One dimensional much?

Match 2 0-2 Loss vs Mono red

This was a match I lost because I didn't read the cards. Leaving a Glistener Elf back to block a flying creature in game 1 then in game two, I drew my creatures but had no answer to the 27 burn spells cast in response to my protection/hexproofing. Impetuous Sunchaser was the major damage dealer on both occasions.

Match 3 - 1-2 loss to mono black control.Against my good friend John who I tried and failed to convince to run four undying evil in the deck still beat me handily. Game one I kept a god hand and pumped my way to 10 counters in turn 5. Game 2 we both had to mulligan twice, but we opted to draw seven instead, games two and three took a similar pattern. We traded for a while, his removal against my creatures, but eventually a Chittering Rats went through unblocked to allow Okiba-Gang Shinobi to hit. Sat with a rapidly diminishing hand knowing I was about to draw a card I didn't need all I could do was wait and discard two more cards. With an empty hand and terrible board position I conceded. If I cast the top decked creature, it would get removed. If I kept it in hand to wait for a protection spell, it would be discarded to the Okiba-Gang.

Watch 4 - 2-1 win vs G Infect

It's a mirror match basically. He was running extra lands including swamps for his only black card, plague stinger.

The rest of it was basically my deck with plague stingers instead of Rot Wolf. My sideboard won me the second and third games, in came Fog, Hornet Sting and Hunger of the Howlpack (anti infect +1/+1 counter tech ) allows me to trade with other infect creatures to an extent. Out came Rangers Guile, Vines of the Vastwood and Rot Wolf.I'll be dissolving this deck back into the modern/legacy pauper version. I won't be playing Modern Pauper again unless I'm really inspired. Phil Collins has left Genesis once again.